TheThriae (/ˈθraɪ.iː/;Ancient Greek:Θριαί,romanized: Thriaí) werenymphs, three virginal sisters, one of a number of suchtriads inGreek mythology.[1] They were namedMelaina ("The Black"),Kleodora ("Famed for her Gift"), andDaphnis ("Laurel") orCorycia.
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They were the threeNaiads (nymphs) of the sacred springs of theCorycian Cave ofMount Parnassus inPhocis, and the patrons ofbees. The nymphs had women's heads and torsos and lower body and wings of a bee.[2]
The nymph sisters were romantically linked to the godsApollo andPoseidon; Corycia, the sister after whom theCorycian Cave was named, was the mother ofLycoreus withApollo,[3][4] Kleodora was loved byPoseidon, and was the mother by him (or Kleopompos) of Parnassos (who founded the city of Parnassus[5]) while Melaina was also loved byApollo, and bore himDelphos (although another tradition namesThyia as the mother of Delphos).[6] Her name, meaning "the black," suggests that she presided oversubterranean nymphs.
These three bee maidens with the power ofdivination and thus speaking truth are described in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes, and the food of the gods is "identified as honey";[7] the bee maidens were originally associated withApollo, and are probably not correctly identified with the Thriae. Both the Thriae and the Bee Maidens are credited with assisting Apollo in developing his adult powers, but the divination that Apollo learned from the Thriae differs from that of the Bee Maidens. The type of divination taught by the Thriae to Apollo was that of mantic pebbles, the throwing of stones, rather than the type of divination associated with the Bee Maidens and Hermes:cleromancy, the casting of lots.[8] Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods fromMycenean times. Bees were associated, too, with theDelphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.[9]